Ninth place for Burnett

Ireland’s Derek Burnett had to settle for a share of ninth place in the Olympic men’s trap shooting final at Athens today.

The 33-year-old was consistent throughout the two days of competition, registering the perfect score in the opening round. He missed just three of his next 50 attempts.

The Athlone-based competitor failed to hit the target on three occasions today and he finished five points behind winner Alexei Alipov of Russia.

Italy’s Giovanni Pellielo took silver with 146 and Adam Vella of Australia put Sydney gold medallist Michael Diamond in the shade, claiming bronze with 145.

Meanwhile, medal hopefuls Sam Lynch and Gearóid Towey showed why they could spring a surprise in the lightweight men’s double sculls.

The pair won bronze at last year’s World Championship but both have suffered a season of injuries which, at one point, threatened to ruin their Olympic dream.

Italian world champion Elia Luini claims they are the crew he is most wary of, and the Irish pair progressed straight into the semi-finals with a confident heat victory. They finished in a time of six minutes and 16.63 seconds.

Lynch was delighted with the result and said: “We enjoyed the race very much. We knew from the first 500 metres that we would win and we made it.”

The men’s lightweight four team of Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley, Niall O’Toole and Paul Griffin also produced an impressive display to finish second in their heat, behind the Australians.

David Burrows is currently in 14th position in the Finn class after three rounds, while Rory Fitzpatrick is 31st in the Laser class after two rounds.

Gerald Owens and Ross Killian are sitting in 16th position after four rounds of the men’s 470 competition.

However, in the pool, Emma Robinson failed to qualify from the 100m breaststroke heats after clocking one minute and 11.40 seconds.